Athletic Mental Energy: Theoretical Advances and Practical Applications

Athletic mental energy refers to the perceived availability of cognitive, emotional, and motivational resources that enable an athlete to initiate and sustain goal-directed effort, adapt to competitive demands, and maintain psychological readiness across training and competition. As a construct, it is distinct from physical energy, though the two interact: mental energy shapes an athlete’s capacity to tolerate effort, regulate attention, and persist under pressure even when physiological resources are taxed. Early conceptual work by Marcora and colleagues on the psychobiological model of endurance performance demonstrated that perceived exertion and mental fatigue — proxies for depleted mental energy — are powerful independent predictors of athletic performance, irrespective of physiological capacity. More recently, research by Van Cutsem et al. (2017) and Pageaux (2016) confirmed that mental fatigue induced by prolonged cognitive effort significantly impairs subsequent athletic output, lending empirical weight to mental energy as a performance-relevant construct. Psychological perspectives drawing on self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci) further illuminate how motivational quality — not merely quantity — shapes the experience of mental energy, with autonomous motivation associated with greater sustained effort and lower perceptions of depletion.Despite this growing evidence base, the construct remains underspecified. Definitions vary across psychobiological, cognitive-motivational, and applied sport science traditions, and the mechanisms by which mental energy is developed, maintained, and restored in athletic populations are not yet systematically understood.This Research Topic addresses athletic mental energy as a coaching-relevant resource — that is, a psychological asset that coaches can observe, influence, and develop through deliberate practice design, communication strategies, recovery planning, and the broader coach-athlete relationship. The scope is intentionally anchored to the coaching context: submissions should connect their theoretical or empirical contribution to implications for coaching practice, coach education, or the coach-athlete dynamic. Studies examining mental energy purely at the individual athlete level, without reference to the coaching environment, are outside the primary scope of this collection.We welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions addressing the following themes:- Conceptual models and formal definitions of athletic mental energy, including its boundaries with related constructs (mental fatigue, psychological resilience, self-regulation capacity)- Coach-athlete relationships, feedback quality, and communication strategies that sustain or restore athlete mental energy- Coach education: how coaches develop competence in recognizing and responding to athletes’ mental energy states- Coach wellbeing: coach mental energy, emotional labor, and burnout as factors shaping the coaching environment- Psychological and neurocognitive correlates of mental energy, including attention regulation, motivation, and self-control, examined within coached sport settings- Dynamic fluctuations of mental energy within training cycles and competition schedules- Cross-cultural and sport-specific differences in mental energy profiles and coaching responses- Measurement and assessment approaches suitable for use in coached environments — from psychometric tools to ecological momentary assessment and wearable technologiesInterventions co-designed with coaches, including psychological skills training, mindfulness protocols, and recovery practices- Practical frameworks for athlete monitoring, talent development, and training design informed by mental energy principlesSubmissions may include original research articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and brief research reports. Interdisciplinary approaches drawing on sport psychology, coaching science, exercise physiology, and neuroscience are encouraged, provided the coaching relevance of the contribution is clearly articulated. Topic editors: Doğukan Batur Alp GÜLŞEN, Mark Thompson, Frank Jing-Horng Lu, 緯鈞 沈 Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78398/athletic-mental-energy-theoretical-advances-and-practical-applications